Class In Session: Your Will, Not Mine

"Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. . ."

Seeking God's will for our lives or for a specific decision can be daunting, at best.

We sometimes magnify the search for His will to the point where we can't see the forest from the trees.

We tend to think of his will as a specific task, goal, or a destiny to be lived out.

This is part of it, of course. However, His will is not limited to a thing, an event, a season. Rather, His purpose for us involves a life style, a moment by moment devotion. We can get so worked up with what will happen next that we miss the importance of right now. Every day we have many opportunities to live out His will. Every thought, every action or deed, every word we speak is an opportunity to run towards His will. However, this can be easier said than done.

I don't think the Lord intends for His purposes to be so difficult.

His word says, "For His yoke is easy and His burden is light". Matthew11:30 So why can desiring His will be one thing, but living it out be another? I've learned that I tend to run into some roadblocks on the way.

Trust requires action.

We cannot confuse trusting with wishing. A wish is a blind hope that something will happen randomly, that things will just work the way they're supposed to. Trust, however, is a certainty, knowing that if God sends us, He will equip us. If He says it, it is done. What we see at the moment does not dictate God's will, His Word does. Waiting, without God's direction, is a wish. Waiting on His promises is trust. Allowing Him to decide what the outcome will look like, for He is working in our best interest.

Knowledge requires discovery.

It is impossible to act on something we don't understand. As a teacher I cannot require my students to take an assessment on content I have not covered or that they are not understanding yet. It's an unnecessary assessment, I already know the outcome. Similarly, His Word is His will, there is where I will find understanding and the roadmap to my daily destinations. If I know His Word, and I apply it on a daily basis, I don't feel as lost as I do when I'm leaving my personal study times for later.

Knowing and applying are two steps. James advises us to not just be listeners, but to do what God's word says. James 1:22 As we do so, His plans will no longer be as mysterious as they once were.

Acceptance requires letting go.

At the Garden of Gethsemene, Jesus surrendered his will to the Father's. This is the most difficult roadblock of all, the clincher; accepting His will even when we know the immense sacrifice required.

Priscilla Shirer, in her bible study, "Gideon" says,"God doesn't call us to a hard thing, he calls us to the impossible." Wow! His ways are not our ways. This roadblock requires strength from the Holy Spirit to overcome. In our strength, we may not be able to obey, to accept, to surrender.

When Isaac was asked to offer his only son as a sacrifice unto the Lord, he had to have been in a place of complete surrender and acceptance of God's will. He knew that although God was asking him to do a difficult task, God was good, and He would come through. How? He didn't know.

But, he accepted and obeyed.

It is in our daily devotion, our crying out for His presence and will in our lives, that He affords us the strength to let go and allow God to do the impossible through us, in us and for us.

As we trust Him without limits, discover His character and His heart, and embrace His plan by letting go of our own, we will be living this life alongside Him, on His radar. And, empowered by His Spirit,

it will be easy and it will be light.

Will our circumstances change? Probably not.

But, we will have changed for the glory of God and for our own good.

This is His will.